Current events in the words of the students of Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur

VGSoM Innovation

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events and/ or publicly available information. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

As per the scientists, Milky Way is being pushed through space by cosmic dead zone. It is known that our galaxy is being pulled through space, but cosmologists suspected it was being pushed as well.The constellation is loacated on the farthest side of Lacerta, the Lizard, the vast patch of nothingness appears to have a striking dearth of galaxies compared to the rest of its cosmic neighbourhood.

The Shapely attracter being the attracting obstacle, pulling the Wilky Way galaxy, but research showed the pushing force by a Dipole repeller. A 3D map of the nesrest galaxies show a steady flow of galaxies towards the Shapley attractor and away from another region of space almost directly behind the Milky Way on the same axis. The movement of Milky Way depend on the gravitational attraction attraction of the galaxies around. With increased distance from Wilky Way, the attracting force diminishes and at regions devoid of galaxies, give rise to repelling force

So from the studies done at Imperial College London even shows that with increased voids in space, lack of galaxies at a particular direction, leads to a pushing force ,with an attracting force from the distant and closely spaced galaxies around Milky Way.

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events and/ or publicly available information. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

Currently, the Internet is mainly operated by humans. Certainly, there are miles of fiber optic cabling and millions of routers around the world directing Internet traffic and hundreds of server farms that are crunching numbers for optimal service. But in the core of it, the Internet is a person-to-person network and the electronics are merely there to facilitate that network.

The Internet of Things creates a network of multiple devices that communicate with each other without human involvement. This device-to-device connection mostly involves the collection of data and the processing of that data so that said devices can make their own decisions and act accordingly. Therefore the name: Internet (connectivity) of Things (devices).

The Internet of Things is a concept that requires three things in the core:

A technique for devices to be interconnected,

A technique for devices to gather data,

A technique for devices to process that data and make decisions accordingly.

This interconnectivity has huge implications for efficiency and automation. When utilized effectively, this no-human-involved sort of self-device-management frees us up to spend our time elsewhere. In the future, maybe it’ll save us as little as a few minutes per day or as much as several hours per day, but all of it adds up to big gains in the long run.

The Internet of things will touch every corner of our life in future. One of the common scenarios will be the prescriptive medication. A track on our health and daily habits could aid hospitals to predict ills in advance. Other sector of IOT application will be Utility- the smart electricity grid, the smart meters, connected grids and sensors in windmill and solar panels could aid us to track and manage energy usage and help us to build predictive modeling to schedule downtimes and efficient energy usage. IOT can be applied on a large scale as well such as Traffic management. If the city’s infrastructure was expanded to include roadside sensors and satellite imaging, that data could be used to analyze traffic pattern around the city and dynamically adjust the traffic light operations to minimize the choke points and jams.

The most disruptive application of IOT will be it the manufacturing sector, which will transform what things are manufactured but more importantly ‘How things are manufactured’. The future of manufacturing plant will be the Modular factory units which will be flexible manufacturing factories and integrated logistics. IOT will aid in Virtual production which involves Digital plant with Virtual inspection, through this we will be able to control and manage manufacturing facilities from miles away. Collaborative robots will aid in smart manufacturing, the activities which involves precision, personalized tasks and risk in manufacturing will be done easily. The Radio Frequency Identification (RDIF) will aid in finished products tracking as well as in real time location systems and online monitoring process, vendor parts etc.

In such a interconnected environment Data security is extremely important. Device-to-device connection is all good and dandy until a human decides to spoof part of that connection and remotely hijack a device for malpractices. This isn’t a huge problem for something like device-regulated home temperature, but losing control of city-wide traffic could spell disaster. And then there are device malfunctions. We all know how software and hardware can both be buggy, and sometimes those bugs are quite major. With regard to the Internet of Things, buggy hardware (errors in data collection) and buggy software (errors in data processing) can throw massive wrenches into the large systems that future generations may grown to depend on.

One might wonder, if we have reached at too much complexity (IOT), but the future generation of kids would think nothing of it. It seems their wonderful plastic human brains could adapt to any acceleration technology and embrace it lovingly. IOT, whatever way we think about it, whatever way we think it will turn out to be- IOT is happening. Every major global government and every major economic block is investing heavily in IOT. There are already hundred of million things connected to internet we are heading to hundred of billion things or possibly trillion trillions. And it will change our life that’s one certainty.

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events and/ or publicly available information. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

Being the frequent users of data packs on phone, some of us these days ponder upon the cheap data plans of Reliance Jio. How are they making money? How are they providing us with the cheap data plans? What is their business strategy? Why other companies are not providing at the same prices as Jio?

Reliance Jio is different from other network providers because they have the capability to provide us with unlimited data. Other companies have to pay fiber optic companies but Reliance has bought Infotel Broadband. If a network providing company has once build the complete infrastructure required then they can provide us with unlimited data without further putting in some money. Also the tariff plans made by Jio are defined strategically to make profits. If the user spend anything above Rs. 150 per month which is the average revenue per user, he is considered to be high value customer. Reliance Jio has kept no plan in between Rs. 149 and Rs. 499. So most of the users think of the benefits they are getting in Rs. 499 pack and go for it which is directly making them high value consumers.

The multiple business verticals Reliance Jio is entering, should also be looked upon. Jio apps and LYF phones are good sources of profits. They are providing Jio apps like Jio Play, Jio drive, Jio news etc. for free till 2018 then they will make huge profits from these apps as the apps can only be used by the Jio users and the experience provided by these apps is excellent. Initially Jio was providing all the unlimited preview offers only if you buy the LYF phones, this increased the sales of these phones with not so good specifications which led to the increased profit margins.

Reliance Jio is playing with the minds of consumers yet as a user we all are getting benefited. They are not compromising on any of their profit makings, they have taken sufficient time and have made a proper strategy which in future is going to benefit them as well as our country.

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events and/ or publicly available information. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

With our love soaring at all time high for Social Media, uploading an uncountable number of selfies, usfies, and those trip albums every day has become a habit for most of us. According to BusinessInsider, more than 1.8 billion images are uploaded everyday on Social media platforms like Facebook, Flicker, Instagram and Whatsapp. But, we hardly think about the backend processes that these Social Media companies undergo to make the experience pleasing. With increasing resolution of the cameras, the images size up and to view them high bandwidth of the internet is utilized. This tends to be a costly affair for people residing in countries where internet connection is spotty and comes with high cost. Google has found the solution to this problem in the lap of Machine Learning and has come up with RAISR.

RAISR or Rapid and Accurate Image Super Resolution is a technology that employs Machine Learning to generate high-quality versions of low-resolution images. So, an image of 100 KB can be efficiently reduced to 25 KB without compromising the image quality. The underlying process involves the learning and training on a pair of a high and a low-quality image. It results in the creation of filters that are then applied to each pixel of the low-quality image, adding more details to it. Now, even though there have been other technologies that work in the same direction, the benefit that Google boasts about RAISR is that it is 10 to 100 times faster and reduces the bandwidth usage by more than 75%.

Google has already started testing it on Google+ platform and a set of Android devices by implementing this technology on 1 billion images every week. Google certainly seems excited about how this technology is going to evolve, making user experience only better.

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

On 56th Independence Day, August 15 2003, our Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had announced that “Our country is now ready to fly high in the field of science. I am pleased to announce that India will send her own spacecraft to the moon by 2008. It is being named Chandrayaan-1”.

Chandrayaan-1 was India’s first lunar probe. It was launched by the Indian Space Research Organization in October 2008, and was operated until August 2009. The mission included a lunar orbiter and an impactor. The mission was a success and made India to stand along with the top advanced countries in space research like US, Russia etc.

Now India wanted to explore its potential further by launching Chandrayaan 2. The Chandrayaan 2, India’s second mission to the Moon, is an advanced version of the previous Chandrayaan-1 mission. It consists of an Orbiter, Lander and Rover configuration. The Orbiter carries the combined stack up to moon till the Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI). The combined stack is then inserted into a lunar orbit of 100 km x 100 km. The Lander is separated from the Orbiter in this orbit.

The Orbiter with scientific payloads will orbit around the moon. The Lander will soft land on the Moon at a specified site and deploy the Rover. The scientific payloads on board the Orbiter, Lander and Rover are expected to perform mineralogical and elemental studies of the lunar surface.

During 2010, it was agreed that Russian Space Agency ROSCOSMOS would be responsible for lunar Lander and ISRO will be responsible for Orbiter and Rover as well as Launch by GSLV. Later, due to a shift in the programmatic alignment of this mission, it was decided that the Lunar Lander development would be done by ISRO and Chandrayaan-2 will be totally an Indian mission taking a little help from the NASA.

We can expect that if the Chandrayaan 2 is a success then India will be above par in comparison with the other countries in relation to space research and can achieve new heights in the near future.

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

Ever since the dawn of the information age, man has striven to delve into the realms of a virtual world. The technology of Virtual Reality (VR) has shifted from being a mere science fiction concept to something which a lot of us can afford and use at our homes. However, critics have always been vocal about VR. “It ruins the real world experience, turning us all into robots”, they say. However, as always, technology has a solution to their problems. And that solution is Augmented Reality (AR).

Augmented reality is a means to change the way we interact with the world around us. One doesn’t have to leave the real world to experience its benefits. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to sit in the comfort of our rooms and interact in full 3D with our loved ones who reside a thousand miles away? Or to take it to another level, couldn’t countless lives be saved if a doctor from New Delhi is able to interact with patients in the far flung areas of Rajasthan in full 3D by being present there via an augmented reality technology? The possibilities for this technology are immense in every field, be it education, business, research, medicine, engineering or administration.

Two of the world’s software giants, both headed currently by Indian Nationals, have stepped forward and taken a lead in the direction of AR. Microsoft and Google have taken their competition from the software space into the exciting field of AR. Google imagined an AR product which is able to give us more information of the world around us, helping us interact with whatever our eyes see, in new and exciting ways. Microsoft, however, took things to an entirely different level, by placing a full Windows computer on our heads, enabling us to run apps and games on our walls and around us in full 3D, adapting dynamically to our surroundings. The battle between both software giants is an exciting one, and in the end, it is us, the consumers, who will reap the benefits.

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

If you are a lover of the chrome plated grilles, the smell of burning rubber, and the thrill of speed, you will definitely love Bentley’s latest luxurious offering. The car, launched yesterday at a price of 3.85 crore rupees, is what Bentley calls ‘the fastest, most powerful & luxurious SUV in the world’. Every aspect of the car screams luxury. Be it the gorgeous interiors, or the meticulously handcrafted exteriors, this car will surely make every observer’s heart skip a beat.

The Bentley Bantayga offers the widest range of on and off-road drive setting thanks to Bentley’s Drive Dynamics mode and optional off-road settings. The Bentley SUV offer eight driving modes, thus allowing everyone to select the perfect setup for any terrain conditions. Other features on offer are – Electric Power-Assisted Steering (EPAS), Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) including Stop & Go, Traffic Sign Recognition, Rear Crossing Traffic Warning, Park Assist, Electronic Night Vision, an 8” touch screen infotainment system with 60GB hard drive and a choice of up to 30 languages. The features aren’t limited to trivial technical specifications. In terms of raw power, the Bantayga can go from 0-100 km/h in just 4.1 seconds!

The Bantayga is a car to grab immediately if one has the cash and/or one is a lover of limited edition models. Only 3000 Bantayga cars will be produced in all, with the first one being bought by Queen Elizabeth herself. Bentley Bentayga will have only one competitor in the country and that is the Range Rover Sport Autobiography edition (Land Rover’s premium offering).

To sum up, the Bantayga is expected to be the new symbol of luxury for India’s elite. For common folk like us, it will surely be a sight to behold as it prowls the roads of our country.

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

The latest buzz around the technology scene is that of smart wearables. With mobile phones having become an integral part of our lives, wearable devices take the intertwining of technology and our lives to an entirely new level. The most popular wearable smart device is the smart watch. The concept of a smart watch has come a long way from a monochrome SPOT watch by Microsoft launched way back in 2006 to the Apple Watch launched last year which comes with its own app store! Smart watches are all about making lives simpler, and to pursue this mission, one of India’s most trusted and loved premium brand has joined the fray.

Titan, which has led the premium wristwatch market for quite a few years, surprised everyone with the announcement of its own smart watch, Titan Juxt. The Juxt is a culmination of legacy and modern design, retaining the traditional Analog watch, and complemented it with a rectangular display which sits on the dial itself. The end result is simply a visual treat!

Juxt’s value proposition lies in its cross-platform compatibility. Own an Android phone, and it has you covered. Just bought an iPhone and don’t have the bucks left to buy an Apple watch? The Juxt won’t disappoint you here as well. Priced at around 17000 rupees, the Juxt strikes the right blend of premium and affordable. It has a variety of dial colour as well as strap colour and material options, which can be changed at will to suit your style and comfort.

Titan Juxt is truly product to watch out for, and as an MBA student, I give my thumbs up on this one!

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is set to provide cashless payment at 275 toll plazas using mechanism (FASTag). This would in effect from Monday.India currently has 350 toll plazas through which FASTag would enable vehicular movement almost non-stop and convenience of cashless payments of toll fee with nationwide inter operability. FASTag would be in place across 350 plazas in India by this year.

FASTag users would be provided with 10% cashback which would be credited back to the users account at the beginning of the next month. NHAI has partnered with ICICI Bank and Axis Bank with one-time registration fee of Rs 200 for FASTag which would be affixed on wind screen using RFID technology.

FSTag would be availabe on selected toll plazas on National Highways and designated bank branches of partner banks.

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

Whatsapp the word is now synonymous to the texting or once which was used to be SMS has introduced one of the most awaited features – encryption which was long overdue.
WhatsApp figuratively flipped a switch and turned on encryption for over a billion people who use the app. Now, this may seem like just another regular feature in the chat app. But actually, it is a much much more significant move, especially in the backdrop of the much-public fight between Apple and FBI over the encryption.

There are two aspects to the WhatsApp’s move to enable encryption: long term and short term. And both should make WhatsApp users happy.

So what can users expect in the short term. The WhatsApp co-founders Brian Acton and Jan Koum explain it best. They write, “The idea is simple: when you send a message, the only person who can read it is the person or group chat that you send that message to. No one can see inside that message. Not cyber-criminals. Not hackers. Not oppressive regimes. Not even us. End-to-end encryption helps make communication via WhatsApp private – sort of like a face-to-face conversation.”

All of the communication that you carry out through WhatsApp is now encrypted. This includes calls or even the videos that you may share through the app. Although, WhatsApp will still collect meta-data, the fact that it no longer have access to users’ chats is significant.

The long term impact of the move is even more significant. Of late, especially after Edward Snowden revealed the surveillance programmes run by NSA, there is a feeling that nothing is private anymore on the web. But WhatsApp’s move to enable strong encryption and making sure that it doesn’t store any keys, brings some sort of privacy back into the web-related communication. This is important because nowadays not only are cyber criminals looking to exploit people’s data, but also governments across the world are trying to keep a tab on what people say to each other using chat apps or social media.

So we can rightly say that the privacy will be maintained now in the Whatsapp but at the same it will promote more criminal tendencies in the society as it will be very difficult for authorities to catch hold of the person responsible for any crimes. Well we have to wait and watch over the implications of this new feature, till then whatsapp and chill.